Box Rocket - 2003 TRD Doublecab

Gave the truck a much needed bath and wax today. Then took some pics.

 

Just an FYI

My friend's yellow top just crapped out after less than two years.

Then again his truck is kind of a shitshow so who knows if there's something funky going on with his electrical, draws, etc...

 

I run a red top primary and yellow secondary.

Dual yellows is fine.

Biggest difference is a yellow is a deep cycle so it can be drained very low and still come back to life to be charged multiple times with no problems. A red top won't usually last long being super discharged and recharged a lot.

 

Granted I don't have anything auxiliary running from my battery other than a tiny amp, but I've been really happy with my Diehard Platinum. And honestly price of a good battery, the warranty can't be beat. That makes me feel a bit more reassured with all the unknown/changing quality in battery manufacturing

 

Any issues with that hitch binding?

 

Thanks for the advice. Die hard platinum it is.

 

I haven't had any issues.

 

Would be cool to meet you.

 

Was getting some tire vibes ~60mph and noticed a little cupping on one of the rear tires. Strange because it's usually the front tires that develop cupping, unless the rear is really out of balance.

Just had the tires rebalanced and rotated so we'll see if the vibes are gone.

 

When did you pick up the max coupler?

 

I don't have a Max Coupler. I use a Lock-n-Roll.

 

Ahhh my mistake. I'm looking on my phone so it's tough to see.

 

Hey Adam, I'm lookin into longer shackles. What else did you need to order with the allpro 1.5 shackles to fit the dakars? You told me before but I can't seem to find where that conversation went :

 

I've been having a cupping issue with my driver's front for this 6000 miles between rotations.

First time ever with the BFGs for me. Everything's balance, just had my alignment checked at my friend's shop... it's dialed in. Strange.

 

Hey Adam do your TG sliders clear the pinch welds? I know you welded yours together, and mine came welded together. Anyway, I checked mine today after flexing them a little this past weekend and I can see the pinch welds are barely touching the legs of the sliders. I didn't check this before, I don't think they moved, all the welds look good and strong. So I'm thinking this is the way they were from day one, after getting them welded on a couple weeks ago. My question is... Is it ok if they are so close to the pinch welds? Like I said, they are barely barely touching. It doesn't look like the pinch welds were damaged at all, so I guess that's a good sign.

 

Bushings for the Dakars have a narrower shoulder than the AP ones and the AP bushings don't fit the Dakar springs. Just be sure to have bushings that fit. I think I ended up using OME bushings in the spring and AP bushings in the hanger.

If they're touching the pinch weld the impact from a hard hit offroad will get transferred to the pinchweld/rocker and could cause some damage. Its better to have some room for the sliders to flex a bit and not contact the pinchweld. You can notch the pinchweld above the slider legs. I did this but then added a 1" body lift so it wasn't necessary.

 

Had an interesting experience at the local dealer yesterday, I know a few of the techs and the shop foreman who I trust explicitly. He took first place in a nationwide competition of Toyota Master Techs and he's been a longtime Land Cruiser guy, so I don't have a problem having this dealership do work on my truck (usually).

So I had it there yesterday for a transmission flush and to have it tuned. As part of it they needed to pull my skid plate, which was fine and I told them they could leave it off since I was going to work on some other stuff before I put it back on. Not sure what technician worked on it but I will be making sure he doesn't work on it again. When I went to pick it up I take a look at everything like I always do to make sure it was right. My IFS skid plate (like budbuilts) attaches to the back of the steering rack. Since I told them to leave the skid plate off I made sure the rack was as it should be. It wasn't. They didn't put the lower bolt on the u-shaped bracket that's on the passenger side of the rack back in. It was in the bed of the truck with the skid plate. I grabbed it and took it back inside to show them.

I'm glad I caught that since it would have been an exciting drive home had the steering rack come out during the drive.

Anyway, they took the truck back inside to put the bolt back in. The shop foreman that I know came out a few minutes later to talk to me and said that between driving the truck out to the front and then bringing it back into the shop the bracket had bent from the force coming from the steering rack since the lower bolt wasn't in place. It was almost closing time and the tech that had done the initial work had gone home, but that was fine with me since now the top tech in the country was doing the work himself.

They didn't have a replacement bracket in stock and no other dealer in the area did either. It hadn't bent too badly and they were able to get it bent back into place and lined up perfectly.

The next problem was when the original tech was putting the nut back on the driverside bolt for the steering rack it got cross threaded and buggered the threads and wasn't even seated all the way. We found this problem too. Of course nobody had that bolt in stock either. Out came the tap and dies and the threads were cleaned up as best as we could and we got it all back together.

Before anyone thinks this is just a post to trash another dealer, its NOT. A few mistakes were made certainly, and that shouldn't be the case especially at a dealership that is "trained" to work on these. The shop foreman took care of it and made everything right. Even though we got it back together after they had technically closed, he stuck around to make it right and is ordering a new bracket and a replacement bolt for the one with the bad threads. So they aren't just scabbing it back together but using new parts to replace anything that was damaged.

The moral of the story is, no matter who is doing the work on your truck, check and double check that things were done correctly. I typically do most of my own work, but every now and then I get some outside help. I'm glad I'm in the habit of checking on things and looking for anything out of place otherwise I wouldn't have seen the problem with the steering rack and it could have been ugly.

Check the work you have done by others, and always check your own work too.

 

yup its a machine, you cant expect it to never break or stuff to stay tight. its a good habit to be in checking hardware periodically....
as for the tech, there are always some dull knives in the knife drawer... its cool they r taking care of it with new parts. hopefully that one tech didnt ruin ur trust in the whole shop

 

Put the "3rd row" seats back in the bed today prepping for a LONG family camping trip that's coming up. Seating for 7 in a Tacoma FTW.

 

got any pics of this setup? ive thought about this mod for any friends wanting to come along while wheelin...